#Dubai Firm’s Africa Ambitions Raises Carbon Colonialism Concerns - Bloomberg

Dubai Firm’s Africa Ambitions Raises Carbon Colonialism Concerns - Bloomberg

While a new UN market for the international trading of carbon credits begins to take shape, Blue Carbon, a firm backed by an Emirati royal family, has been on the hunt. This summer, it sought to gain rights to 10% of Liberia’s landmass to generate carbon credits, and it’s been discussing similar deals with several countries across the continent, including Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania.

Blue Carbon’s recent spree is seen by some as a harbinger of a new era of mega-deals as the UN market for country-to-country offset trading begins to get off the ground. Finalizing the rules governing that will be central to discussions at this year’s UN climate talks starting Thursday in Dubai.

The Liberia deal and the prospect of others like it are giving rise to concerns of “carbon colonialism” – whereby foreign entities gain control over forest land on the continent to offset the emissions from rich, polluting countries, with very little benefit to local communities.

“There’s a risk of a land grab, a risk of land dispossession because richer countries want to lock land up for climate mitigation,” said Kate Dooley, an expert on forest carbon accounting and governance at the University of Melbourne.

Blue Carbon’s rights would be “limited to project implementation” and the company wouldn’t own the land, it said in an emailed response to questions. The company said it will respect the consent of local communities, and that the project land area is expected to narrow after feasibility and eligibility assessments.